More than 3,000 commercial and multifamily real estate finance professionals headed to San Diego this week for Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) CREF. A wide range of topics were raised at the conference including tax reform, labor and employment, healthcare and seniors, as well as the future of CMBS, capital markets and technology. Connect Media was on hand to capture highlights, and will be sharing videos in the coming weeks.

Research released this week by MBA predicts commercial and multifamily mortgage originations will decline slightly in 2018, ending the year at $549 billion, down three percent from the 2017 volumes. MBA expects volumes to remain at roughly that level in 2019 as well.

MBA forecasts 2018 mortgage banker originations of just multifamily mortgages at $248 billion, with total multifamily lending at $271 billion. After strong growth in recent years, multifamily lending is expected to hold roughly steady in 2019.

MBA researcher Jamie Woodwell (pictured above right) says, “There is a strong mix of both headwinds and tailwinds in the commercial real estate finance markets right now. Our sense is that for commercial and multifamily mortgage borrowing and lending, the net effect is likely to be close to a wash.”